Boy, 5, hits reading milestone

Thursday

Brian Wilmoth hit a milestone as he was reading his 3,000th book this summer.

Wilmoth, 5, already reached a major point when he was three as part of a reading program at the Mulberry Public Library, with an assist from his sister, parents and grandmother.

It took Wilmoth about 14 months to read his first 1,000 books and two years to reach 3,000.

Brian’s grandmother, Faye Wilmoth, has taken her grandson to the Mulberry Public Library since he was six months old. She has also been bringing her grandkids to the library for 13 years.

“He has really enjoyed it,” said Faye of the reading program. “He has learned his shapes and colors through reading. He knows numbers by sight up to 20 and we just discovered he already knows most of the alphabet letters by sight. We had a good time.”

Brian’s favorite books have been about Pete the Cat, a popular book Mulberry’s branch director Robin Egerton has read during storytime.

Egerton said a couple of more young readers hit the 1,000-book marker in the past two years.

The program began back in 2015 and is set up to help children read 1,000 books before they reach kindergarten.

The child must have a library card and be enrolled into the program by their parents or guardians at the participating library. Parents are given a log binder to track the first 100 books. After each set of 100 books is read and logged, the binder is returned to the library for additional pages and information.

The Mulberry library offers a reading time on Thursdays starting at 10 a.m. for ages 3-up and a Mommy and Me program on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. for ages 0-3.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.